


like an animal i protect my pride

by FreshBrains



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Erica, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Community: a_b_o_ladies, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Jealousy, Multi, Omega Boyd, Omega Isaac, Pre-Relationship, Protectiveness, Rivalry, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-19
Updated: 2014-05-19
Packaged: 2018-01-25 17:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1656335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreshBrains/pseuds/FreshBrains
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So there were a lot of things Erica didn’t count on.  She never counted on being hot in high school.  She never counted on being an alpha, either.  But the one thing she really, <i>really</i> never counted on was having two of her best friends be super hot, super eligible omegas who only seemed interested in <i>her</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	like an animal i protect my pride

**Author's Note:**

> My work for the [A/B/O Femslash & Het Ficathon](http://a-b-o-ladies.livejournal.com/) on Livejournal. Although this fic does focus on Erica's relationship with her guys, it's a lot of Erica character study and friendship stuff as well.

So there were a lot of things Erica didn’t count on.  First of all, she never counted on being hot in high school—let’s be honest, girls know these things before they turn thirteen.  But there she was: a bombshell werewolf with huge tits and a flowing blonde mane and flawless skin.

She never counted on being an alpha, either.  That one was even more surprising—there hadn’t been a female alpha in her family since great-great-grandmother Millie, who according to popular family legend, lived in a cabin in the Alaskan wilderness with her omega for thirty years and hunted bears for sport.  But there she was, alpha and proud, three ruts in and only seventeen years old.  Top that, Scott McCall!

But the one thing she really, _really_ never counted on was having two of her best friends be super hot, super eligible omegas who only seemed interested in _her_.

*

Isaac was the first, of course—out of the entire group, he was the one who knew how he’d present early on and was totally cool with it.  “Male omegas are pretty common in my family,” he said with a shrug after taking his first heat leave in eighth grade.  “My older brother was an omega, and he was a _soldier_.”

Erica always thought they’d be two betas and an omega—she and Boyd were almost positive they’d never present.  “You’re lucky,” she told Isaac during lunch one day freshman year.  “You can go into heat and you won’t have to worry about getting knocked up.  Both omega _and_ beta girls still have to deal with that.”

“Alpha girls do too,” Isaac pointed out, finishing his sandwich.  “And heats sort of suck when you have to do it alone in Mrs. McCall’s basement heat room.”

Boyd rolled his eyes.  “Haven’t you two been listening in health class?  Only alpha girls with male omega mates choose to get pregnant, and that’s a crazy small percentage of the population.  Alpha women with female omegas always have their omegas carry.”

“Yeah, and hopefully one day we can get our omegas pregnant without needing a donor,” Erica said, and almost choked on her sandwich when she realized her slip-up.  She hadn’t thought of herself as alpha or omega or beta or _anything_ except Erica up until that moment.

Isaac and Boyd looked at her with wide, expectant eyes.  “Holy shit, have you _presented_?”  Boyd looked a little worried—they were always counting on being betas together.

“No,” Erica said carefully, keeping a careful eye on the way Isaac looked her up and down, seeing her in a new light.  “But I think I just did.”

Erica’s mother made her a doctor’s appointment for the next day, but Erica didn’t even last that long.  She went into her first rut that night, and it was exhilarating and painful and wonderful and perfect and terrifying all at the same time—her mother was a beta and her father was a low-intensity alpha, so she could stay in her bedroom rather than renting a rut room.  For an entire week, all she wanted to do was find a warm body and throw it down, she wanted to get something wet, to bite, to _claim_.

She always knew it would be different for her—the female omegas she knew all said how they wanted something inside them, how they felt so empty during their solitary heats.  But for her, it was so different.  She didn’t have a dick, so the need to penetrate wasn’t there—instead, she was afflicted with ABD, or _alpha bite drive_.  She wanted to badly to sink her teeth into someone’s warm shoulder, feel their blood run into her mouth, give them a mark to say they were _hers_ and nobody else’s.  It was a female alpha’s way of claiming—just as intense, effective, and bonding as a knot, and _much_ more visible.  Some alpha men were even adopting the bite for their male omegas as a bonding mark, since the male omegas couldn’t get pregnant and the knot was biologically useless for them.

The rut was hot and sweaty, it lasted too long and left Erica irritable, tired, hungry, and completely unsatisfied.  Her mother took care of her after the rut, bathed her, cleaned up her bedroom, and Erica was completely humiliated when she realized she tore open three pillows with her teeth and soaked through the sheets with arousal. 

“Being an alpha is grody,” she said sullenly later that night when she and her father were alone in the living room.

He laughed and pulled her close, giving her the affection and intimacy people craved after their ruts and heats.  “You’ll get used to it, kiddo.  When you find a partner, you’ll change your mind.”

“Highly debatable,” Erica retorted, and thought about Isaac’s sweet smile and lithe body, what it would feel like beneath hers.  “I think I’m going to go to sleep,” she said, easing off the couch and back into her bedroom.

*

Boyd presented as an omega after he got the bite, which was surprising to everyone.

“I wasn’t expecting it,” he said while he, Erica, and Isaac hung out in Erica’s backyard one afternoon, lying in the grass like they always did.  “It was like the bite brought it up front.  Maybe I would’ve never presented without it.”  He sounded relieved, like he was starting to come into himself, figure out who he really was.

Isaac lay close to him, and Erica felt a tiny pang of jealousy.  She was the lone alpha in their group—she never expected to be the outlier.  “I wish the bite made me a beta,” Erica said.

Isaac and Boyd exchanged a glance.  “You don’t mean that,” Isaac said warily.

“I do,” Erica insisted.  “I don’t know how this is supposed to work.  I was a total geek until last year, and now all of a sudden I’m supposed to be this super-confident alpha, attracting all the omegas in town?  Bullshit.  I already suck at this.”

Isaac snorted.  “Yeah, okay.  Look at Stilinski and McCall.  They’re both alphas, and they’re the biggest dorks I’ve ever met.”  Once he said Scott’s name, Isaac blushed pink—Erica could tell Isaac had a crush on him, but she didn’t bring it up.  “Presenting doesn’t change you, it just brings out who you really are.”

Erica lay down on the blanket and looked up at the sky.  She felt safe in her backyard, surrounded by the scents of fresh grass, linen drying on the line, and rich dirt.  She tried not to notice her best friends’ soft omega scents rising into the air, but it was impossible not to—they were too comforting, too nice, and they made her want to cup her hands around the base of their necks and pull them close to her.  She looked over at Isaac on her left and gave him a sly grin.  “So have you…yet?”

Isaac grinned and bit his bottom lip.  “A good omega never reveals his heat secrets.”

Boyd snorted.  “Bullshit.  Spill.  If you can’t tell us, who can you tell?”  His answer, soft but interested, let Erica know that he hadn’t gone through a heat yet.

Isaac smiled, curling into Erica’s side, hiding his red face in her bicep.  She suppressed a shiver.  “Well…it didn’t last too long.  Mrs. McCall said I was a lot easier to deal with than her ex-husband.”  He wrinkled his nose.  “It was… _wetter_ than I thought it would be.”

Boyd raised his eyebrows, which was about as much interest as he’d ever show in a conversation.  Erica blurted out a laugh.  “Oh my god, same here!  Like, not in the same way…but yeah.  Liquids all over the place.”

Isaac laughed and rolled over onto his stomach, burying his face in the blanket.  “Ugh, it was so _gross_.  I was so tired and thirsty afterwards, and…I just wanted someone.  I wanted someone there.  It sucked.”

Erica nodded.  “I hope it gets better.  Because that was super shitty.”

Boyd hummed in agreement, still staring up at the sky.  “This is not making me look forward to my first heat.”

Erica patted him on the arm before rolling over onto her stomach like Isaac and throwing her arms across her best friends’ waists.  They used to lie like that before they presented, before the bite, before everything.  “You’ll be just fine,” Erica said, which was something she would’ve never said before she presented as an alpha.  “We’ll be fine.”

*

Two days after Erica’s second rut, Jackson Whittemore presented as an omega, and _wow_ , was that a curveball nobody was expecting.  Nobody except Erica, because she’d never met a subbier omega in her life than that kid—she’d known since _forever_ , but it was in famously bad form to guess at status.  Stereotypes and all.

“So you heard?”  Isaac caught up to her in the hallway, all pink-cheeked and out-of-breath.  Ever since Jackson went into pre-heat in his chemistry class and had to take a sick day, the school was practically vibrating with gossip.  A presentation was always a fun pick-me-up on a slow day.

Erica rolled her eyes, letting Isaac take her arm (one of the nicest perks about being an alpha with omega friends—she always got to tote them around like that).  “Are you kidding me?  I smelled it the second we walked in.  I was just waiting to see who it was.”

“I don’t know how you do it.  My sense of smell sucks.”

“Jackson has a weird smell, I don’t really like it.  It’s like…too sweet, and eager.  It clashes with how much of an asshole he is.”  Erica thought about how Jackson smelled shuffling down the science wing towards the nurse’s office, trailing his scent into Erica’s anatomy classroom.  It didn’t hit her in a sexual way, she was too past her rut to react to omega smell, but it was enough to make her sit up straight and take up a little more space in her chair.  It was enough to remind her of exactly what she was.

“I can’t wait for Lydia to present.  She’s going to alpha the shit out of Whittemore.”  Isaac looked smug and a little serene—Erica knew he didn’t care much for Jackson.

Erica stuck her tongue out at Isaac.  “Hey, you say it like it’s a bad thing.”

*

So there are a lot of things Erica didn’t expect.  She didn’t expect rutting would be so gross and awesome at the same time.  She didn’t expect omega smell to hit her so hard after she presented as an alpha, even though all the doctors warned her.  She didn’t expect her two best friends to present as omegas within a month of each other.

And she certainly didn’t expect Jackson Whittemore to show up on her front porch on a Saturday morning to ask Erica if she’d help him through his heat.

“Could you, like, say that one more time?  And slower?”  Erica rubbed sleep out of her eyes with her fists, masking a gasp of surprise with a yawn.

Jackson rolled his eyes, but he squirmed a little, and Erica knew he was totally out of his element.  “Look.  I presented as an omega, yeah, okay.  Not totally expected but whatever.  And Lydia hasn’t presented yet, so she gave me permission to choose another alpha to go through my next heat with.”

Erica folded her arms across her chest and eyed him skeptically.  “Aren’t the alphas supposed to ask the omegas?”

Jackson waved away the subject.  “I’ve never been traditional.  And it’s not like omegas are beating down your door for a fuck, Reyes.”

Erica flinched, her face reddening like it used to after she woke up from a seizure.  She had to control the yellowing of her eyes (another thing that came more frequently after presenting).  She gripped the edge of the door, claws almost cutting into the wood.  “Fuck you, Jackson.”

After she slammed the door in his face, she went back to bed and only cried a little bit.

*

Boyd sat down next to Erica at their usual out-of-the-way lunch table the following Monday, unpacking his sandwich from his paper bag.  “Where’s Isaac?”

Erica shrugged, still irritable from the weekend.  “I don’t know, I figured he was with you.”

Boyd shook his head.  “I saw him talking to Jackson last hour, which was sort of weird.  They can’t stand each other.”

Erica froze mid-bite at the mention of Jackson’s name.  “Why the hell was he talking to Jackson?”

Boyd shrugged, obviously more interested in his meal than in Isaac’s whereabouts.  “I don’t know, but he looked sort of pissed.”

Erica sighed, throwing her slice of lukewarm pizza down on her tray.  She held out her hand, clenching her fingers a few times, motioning for Boyd to stand with her.  “Come on.”

“Where are we going?”  Boyd dropped his food at Erica’s voice.

“To the principal’s office.”

*

They sat in Erica’s backyard again, in a row with Erica in the middle, just like they did every day.  Only this time, Isaac had a black eye and a scratch down his cheek, and Boyd couldn’t stop muffling his laugh in the blanket.

“Shut the fuck up,” Isaac hissed, reaching across Erica to smack Boyd.

Erica closed her eyes.  “I still can’t believe you did that, Isaac.  Why in god’s name would you do that?”

Isaac turned his head to look at Erica.  She opened her eye a crack to see his swollen face, and before she could hesitate, gently touched the bruise with her thumb, soothing him.  “He was being rude.  He said some stuff about you, called you names…he was being…”

“Oh boy,” Boyd said, clapping his hands once, like he was getting ready for a show.

“Disrespectful,” Isaac finished, biting his lip.  “I’m sorry, but in my family, omegas respect alphas.  That’s how it has always been.”

Erica leaned up on her elbows, hardly comprehending what Isaac was saying.  “Yeah, omegas respect alphas when alphas respect omegas in return!  It goes both ways.  That’s so old-fashioned, _god_ Isaac.”  She swallowed heavily, thinking of the times before Melissa McCall (one of the gentlest, most authoritative alphas Erica ever met) when Isaac would show up with bruises and broken arms due to his alpha father’s temper.  Isaac didn’t know anything different.  She continued before Isaac could protest.  “Jackson doesn’t owe me anything.  He was an asshole, he made me feel like shit, but at the end of the day, he’s not my omega.  So I don’t really care.”

“Good,” Isaac murmured, eyes closed, and Boyd hummed in agreement.  “He doesn’t deserve you.”

They sat quietly for a few minutes, looking up at the sky, Erica still up on her elbows between her boys.

“I can’t believe Isaac got into an omega catfight with Jackson Whittemore,” Boyd finally said, and then none of them could stop laughing.

*

They stayed together every day, Erica with her boys.  That’s how they were known at school, even though it was a rude way to refer to presented couples or friends—Lydia and her boy, McCall and his girl.  It was all crude.  _People deserve names_ , one of the textbooks claimed, _all are equal in regards to everyday life_.

But Isaac and Boyd never seemed to mind, even though none of them acknowledged their friendship as a relationship.  During a routine fire drill, Mr. Harris saw Erica leaning against a tree outside in one of the designated safe zones and asked, “Miss Reyes, would you like to seek out your omegas?”  In standard safety procedures, it was given that all bonded or pre-bonded couples would want to be close in case of real danger when protective instincts would kick in.

Erica blinked at her.  “Oh, I don’t have an omega.  I’m not bonded.”

Mr. Harris smirked.  “I don’t think Mr. Lahey and Mr. Boyd would agree.”

It took all of Erica’s control she learned from Derek not to rip his throat out, talking down to them like that.  Instead, she said, “I’m sure they’ll be fine” through gritted teeth.

*

One afternoon outside, right before the weather started to change and their days outdoors would be numbered, Erica’s father poked his head outside the patio door.  “Erica, honey, can you come here please?”  Boyd and Isaac kept their eyes closed in the grass, practically asleep.

Erica rolled her eyes but stood up and went inside, recognizing the low tones of her father’s alpha voice.  She tried to remember if she vacuumed the living room the day before like he asked her to.  “What’s up?”

“I called Vernon’s mother, she’ll be here to pick him up soon.”

Erica pouted.  “Why, am I in trouble?”

Her father laughed and shook his head.  “No, you’re fine.  You’re all fine.  It’s just that after working with several new omegas at the office, I’ve gotten used to the pre-heat smell, and I think Vernon is due in a few hours.”

Erica looked outside.  “Wow, really?  I didn’t smell anything.”  She was disappointed in herself—her sense of smell was usually right on the ticket.  But Boyd smelled the same as he always did—clean, a little woodsy, warm.

Erica’s father squeezed her on the shoulder.  “That’s because you spend all your time with him.  His scent is becoming a part of you.”

Erica decided then that she really, _really_ liked that idea.

*

“So how was it?”  Isaac teased Boyd in the hallway a few days later.

Boyd looked a little tired, but strangely peaceful, like he had a long, fun weekend.  “It was weird, just like you said.  Not a big fan.”

Erica turned around in the hallway, a majestic feat in her tall red heels.  “That’s because I wasn’t there.  If I was there, it would’ve been fun.”  She glanced at Isaac.  “Same for you.  You’re due for a heat in a month.  I’ll be there.”  Boyd and Isaac stared at her, eyes wide but smiles lacing their mouths.  Erica stood tall, hands on her hips.  “Any objections?”

They both shook their heads silently, like it was a long time coming, like it was a matter of _when_ rather than _if_.

Erica smiled, and held out her arms.  “Come on, boys.  Let’s get lunch.”

They took her arms, and finally, Erica felt like one bad-ass alpha.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Foster the People's "Coming of Age"


End file.
